What our community told us: GFSC Supporter Survey 2026

Who responded?

Our community is spread across the UK and beyond – Sheffield, Cambridge, Glasgow, London, Exeter, Brighton, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Bristol, Halifax, Bath, and the Basque Country. (Eskerrik asko!) People are working on a wide variety of projects, ranging from trans healthcare websites to food co-ops, from community radio to healthcare sustainability research, and from tenants’ unions to open-source software.

Most people who responded work on their own or in very small setups. A few are part of larger organisations, but the majority described themselves as solo, freelance, or working with very occasional collaborators. A number of people remarked that working alone wasn't by choice, and that they would rather collaborate with others – a slight sense of isolation came through as a running theme.

Reponders are working on a remarkable diversity of activities: freelance research and therapy, community arts organisations, cooperative housing, new media art, disability advocacy, game development, web development, composing, sewing, food growing, and more. It's quite a range of the technical and the creative, but they're held together by a shared politics.

What are people trying to change?

We asked everyone what change they’re personally trying to make right now. A big question, but it's one worth asking yourself! The answers included the personal and practical – “trying to be more consistent with morning protein and CBD” – and the structural: “reversal of greenhouse gas emissions and reduction of humanity’s load on the planet to sustainable levels (without a mass human extinction event being the way it happens).”

Several themes came through clearly:

Community building and connection. People want to bring others together, to create spaces for conversation and to support mutual aid. One respondent working in mental health and disability justice described their work as trying to “support others to lead change they want to see.” Another wanted “more people collectively governing and managing the resources they need to survive.” Throughout the reponses, there was a keenness for collectivism and mutual support.

Queer liberation and trans rights! (I always feel these need an exclamation mark). Multiple respondents are working specifically on trans healthcare, trans community infrastructure, and queer organising One was developing information-saring websites about GPs, while another was developing “tales of queer joy” in computer games. As in a lot of categories, our community is working on both the purely practical and the encouraging.

Divesting from big tech. This came up again and again: moving away from US infrastructure and corporate platforms. It's easier said than done, but that doesn't mean it can't be done, and this is something we've enthused about int he past. Other respondents were keen to push back against AI, and find ways to do meaningful work without being dependent on systems people don’t trust or own.

Surviving. Several respondents were honest about the basics: trying to get paid, trying to manage their health, trying to access benefits and care. One person wrote, “I desperately need practical community and am too tired and anxious to access it.” Another said, “I wish I could be a part of organising community change in a meaningful way more than just sending emails to MPs and reading mailing lists alone from my bedroom.”

How tech helps – and how it doesn’t

Almost everyone said technology is fundamental to their work, both in the software and hardware they use, and the ways they're able to connect with others. It seems most of us have ended up with some expeience of remote work, have connected with people we'd never otherwise meet, and have made use of apps, sites and systems for coordinating projects, or just for finding resources and organisations.

We're all reliant on 21st Century technology and its many boons, but it also provides a whole lot of issues and concerns:

Privacy and surveillance. Multiple people flagged concerns about digital privacy, “and accessing community resources at the expense of digital surveillance” – particularly those who are housebound and engage with the world primarily through the internet. One respondent noted that “lots of existing technology is not designed with privacy in mind.” That's particularly concerning when you’re building tools for vulnerable communities. Several people felt they were forced to use systems they disagree with: Microsoft for GDPR compliance, Google for collaboration, Discord for community.

Platform dependency. People know they’re stuck on platforms they don’t like. “I’m feeling increasingly stuck in an AI/Microsoft/Google vortex but also unable to get out of it.” Frustratingly, the tools people need to use for work – email, video calls, document sharing – are overwhelmingly controlled by a handful of corporations. Moving away from them is technically possible, but practically is very difficult, especially when your collaborators and clients are all using them too. (This is certainly a dilemma we'll be discussing in more depth in the coming weeks)

Distraction and overwhelm. Many of the sites and apps we use most often were designed to grab our attention and keep it: something they're alarmingly good at. Several people mentioned distraction as the of the main ways that technology becomes an encumbrance. Others mentioned the sheer volume of communication channels – frustration with “having too many communication methods and I’m looking to streamline that.” One person noted that GFSC itself has “a LOT of channels, overwhelming to know where to start.”

AI everywhere, wanted nowhere. Our respondents showed near-universal hostility to generative AI, and didn't mince their words. Several “wish we could just block AI on everything,” and raised concerns about “vibe coding and losing the ability to think critically.” Some were anxious about what AI means for near-future of the jobs market, and “how my future as a software developer looks – I don’t want to become an AI-dependent developer.” People are worried about AI not as an abstract ethical issue, but as something that is actively damaging their present and future, making their tools worse and leaving skills undervalued.

The things that would really help aren’t technical. When we asked what tools or changes people wished they had, the answers were often about other people, or about themselves, rather than about software at all: “more moderators in more areas,” “an experienced person close to hand,” “support and guidance,” “better ability to split personal and project work.” The desire is for human support, not better apps.

What tools people actually use

The most commonly mentioned tools across all respondents:

• Discord (by far the most mentioned community/social platform)
• WhatsApp and Signal (messaging)
• Email (still everywhere, and not going anywhere)
• Firefox and DuckDuckGo (privacy-conscious browsing)
• Google Workspace and Microsoft Office (often reluctantly)
• Obsidian (personal knowledge management)
• Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams (video calls. Had we run the survey a year sooner, Skype would be in here too)
• Canva (design for community organisations)

Developer-specific tools included bash, Docker, Terraform, VSCode, Python, and various web frameworks. Creative tools included Logic, Final Cut, Scrivener, GameMaker, LibreOffice, and (obscure, but my personal favourite) Crocotile 3D.

Notably, many people report using privacy-focused tools for their personal communication (Signal, Firefox, DuckDuckGo) but corporate tools for work, because that’s what their collaborators use. The gap between what people want to use and what they’re able to use (or obliged to use) is real.

Several people mentioned wanting to self-host, but finding it too technically demanding or time-consuming. One person specifically said they’d help GFSC move away from Discord if we wanted to explore alternatives: “seems a pity to lose knowledge in the discord though… how would that be saved?”

What people wish existed

These are some of the things respondents wished for

• A community CRM: something between a spreadsheet and Salesforce, designed for small organisations that need to keep track of relationships but don’t need large scale enterprise software
• DIY toolkits for common tech problems: “how to make a website or migrate away from Google Suite”
• A viable open-source encrypted alternative to Discord
• Better interoperability between tools: “so people can use things that are familiar to them and still participate”
• Technology that organisations actually own rather than renting all our tech from corporations
• In-person events and gatherings: several people said this is what they most want from GFSC
• Tools that “feel easier and more joyful”

What people are anxious about

We asked what people are most anxious about right now, and the answers were remarkably consistent:

Fascism and the far right: the rise of authoritarianism, the shifting of the Overton window, transphobia, xenophobia, the erosion of privacy. Multiple people raised this as a major concern, with a few calling out particular ring-leaders of fascism's current rise.

AI and the erosion of critical thinking: not just job displacement but the cultural effect of AI on how people think, create, and relate to each other.

Money and survival: income, the self-employment grind, chronic underemployment, the lack of a social safety net, and disability austerity.

Isolation: the gap between wanting to organise and really being able to. Being too tired to access community. Working alone in your bedroom while the world gets worse.

The big picture: “Sleepwalking into the next world war.” “Societal collapse and the ensuing shitshow.” “Fake info apocalypse.” “Spiritual lostness.”

These anxieties are the daily reality of the people in our community.

What people want from GFSC

When asked if there’s anything GFSC could help with, the responses clustered around a few things:

• Resources to help people move away from surveillance capitalism technology: practical guides, not just politics
• Community building: “just continuing to build out PlaceCal and get more orgs and areas involved”
• Technology that tips the balance away from mega-corps and back into the hands of communities
• An overview of the most plausible implications of AI: people want clarity, not just hype or doom
• More in-person events and gatherings: “usually a lot of stuff comes out of that, and it makes things real”
• Support with prioritisation and getting things done: people are overwhelmed

And several people just said: you’re doing good work, keep going.

(Thanks! We will)

What we’re taking from this

A few things stand out:

Our community is doing important work, mostly alone, mostly unfunded. The isolation is the common thread – not just social isolation but the isolation of trying to do meaningful work without any institutional support, without collaborators, and without enough money.

If you'd like to support us with donations, whether one-off or ongoing, it would significantly increase our ability to support many of the projects discussed here.

People don’t want better apps – they want better relationships. The most common wishes weren’t for new software but for human connection, practical support, camaraderie and the ability to participate without being overwhelmed.

The gap between values and tools is a real problem. Almost everyone wants to use privacy-respecting, community-owned technology, but almost everyone is stuck on corporate platforms because that’s where the people and the functionality are. Closing this gap is going to take work and consideration – it requires building alternatives that are genuinely easier and better to use.

We need to keep showing up. The drop-ins, the Discord, the blog, the newsletter – these are the things that make GFSC real for people. Several respondents said they value being part of this community even when they can’t actively contribute. That matters.

Thank you to everyone who filled in the survey. Your honesty helps us understand what we’re doing, what we could do more of, and why it matters. If you didn’t get a chance to respond and want to, the survey is still open, and we'll be glad to hear from you.